APC caretaker committee plotting tenure extension — Senator Marafa

By TAIWO AMODU, Abuja

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress from Zamfara State, Senator Kabiru Marafa has joined the league with forces pushing for the dissolution of the Governor Mai Mala Buni-led All Progressives Congress (APC) Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC).

A group, APC Concerned Members Forum had last Friday at a press briefing asked President Muhammadu Buhari to dissolve the thirteen-member Caretaker Committee. It claimed that the proposed membership register across the 36 states of the federation by the interim leadership of the party was a ploy to extend the six-month timeline given the committee to administer the party.

Spokesperson of the group, Ogenyi Okpokwu further argued that the membership register was outside the mandate given Governor Buni and his team when it was inaugurated by the National Executive Committee of the party at its meeting held last June at the Presidential Villa.

Senator Marafa who incidentally is the arrowhead of a faction of the party in Zamfara State in his statement gave the Governor Buni-led CECPC a December deadline to quit the APC national secretariat.

His statement read in part: “Don’t overstretch your (Buni) luck, we are not afraid of you.

“Many of us are aware that your appointment is unconstitutional, [section 17(iv) of our party’s constitution is very clear]. We only kept quiet because of the respect we have for Mr President and the belief that the party needs to open a new page.

“Be informed that any action you take outside your primary mandate of organizing a convention that will usher in a new set of executive will be null, void and of no effect whatsoever. You have up to December to do the needful or we chase you out.

“Your state needs you more than the party, go and administer your state, you can’t be governor and chairman of APC at the same time. It’s unconstitutional.

“We are eager to witness the emergence of a responsible leadership, a leadership we all can trust, a leadership that will carry every member, every section, every tribe along, not the type that leads by deceit and lies.”

Article 17(iv) quoted by Senator Marafa to back his argument that the Governor Buni team was illegal read in part: “No officer in any organ of the party shall hold executive position office in government concurrently.”

Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the party, Yekini Nabena, however, justified the indifference of the Caretaker Committee towards the conduct of national convention to elect substantive national officers.

Nabena in a statement said the party must achieve genuine reconciliation before it could convene the meeting of its highest organ, the national convention where national officers would be elected.

He said: “The Governor Mai Mala Buni-led All Progressives Congress (APC) Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) is focused on achieving and sustaining true and lasting unity, peace and reconciliation across party ranks and ahead of the planned national convention of the party.

Recall that the CECPC was constituted and inaugurated by the 8th resumed meeting of the APC National Executive Committee (NEC) in June with a core mandate to achieve peace-building, true reconciliation and to give a sense of belonging to every member of the party.

“It is important that the APC conducts its planned national convention to produce the party’s national leadership as a united house. Otherwise, the main aim of constituting the CECPC following the dissolution of the immediate-past National Working Committee (NWC) will be defeated.”

 (Sunday Tribune)